The present invention relates to a safe and more specifically to a safe for the safe-keeping of valuable documents, such as banknotes, cheques, etc. The safe includes a plurality of units each intended for a plurality of valuable documents and the whole of the safe is protected to make attempts to force the safe difficult and/or to prevent such attempts being made.
It is known to use special safes for the safe-keeping of valuable documents, such as banknotes for instance. For natural reasons, such safes are often very heavy and difficult to handle, although this is not a sufficient deterrent on its own to prevent prospective thieves from forcing their way through the wall of a building with the aid of a lorry for instance and blowing open the safe on site or removing the safe to a secluded place and there avail themselves of its contents in peace and quiet.
It is also known to use specially designed security boxes or bags to transport large sums of money in the form of banknotes. Such bags, or boxes, are equipped in different ways with special protective devices which impede/make impossible attempts to force open the bag or box and retrieve its contents. This protective device may, for instance, consist of a used dye capsule/an explosive charge which is automaticlly activated when an attempt is made to force open the box, therewith rendering the banknotes more or less useless by staining/shredding the banknotes.
The object of the present invention is to eliminate the aforementioned drawbacks by providing a novel safe with which it is possible to successfully prevent or at least successfully impede stealing of valuable documents such as cheques, banknotes, etc. In many cases, knowledge of the properties of the safe may, in itself, deter presumptive criminals from any criminal action in the present context.
In accordance with the present invention, at least one unit in a safe of the aforedescribed kind comprises a moveable safe deposit box which within the safe can be connected to the safe and which is equipped with a so-called shell protective means and destructive means which is adapted to come into operation automatically when the safe deposit box is removed from the safe and an attempt is made to force open the box, in response to damage to said protective means, but which when the box is inserted and connected-up in the safe will function only in response to activation from a processor unit mounted in the safe, whereby the protective function of the safe deposit box is subordinated to the protective function of the safe subsequent to the box having been placed in the safe in the manner intended.
These and other characteristic features of an inventive safe will be apparent from the accompanying Claims.